The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre (SWC) is a

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

research institute located in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The SWC forms part of the Faculty of Life Sciences at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(UCL) and is funded by the

Gatsby Charitable Foundation The Gatsby Charitable Foundation is an endowed grant-making trust, based in London, founded by David Sainsbury in 1967. The organisation is one of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, set up to provide funding for charitable causes. Although the ...

and

Wellcome Wellcome () is a supermarket chain owned by British conglomerate Jardine Matheson Holdings via its DFI Retail Group subsidiary. The Wellcome supermarket chain is one of the two largest supermarket chains in Hong Kong, the other being Parkn ...

. Founded in 2016, the Centre comprises 13 labs whose research feeds into the mission of understanding how the brain generates behaviour. SWC is led by Director Professor Tom Mrsic-Flogel, Associate Director Professor Troy Margrie, and Chief Scientific Officer Professor Tom Otis.

History and funding

Conceptualised by

Lord David Sainsbury David John Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville, , raeng.org.uk. Accessed 8 September 2022. (24 October 1940) is a British politician, businessman and philanthropist. From 1992 to 1997, he served as chairman of Sainsbury's, the supermarket c ...

in partnership with the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

, SWC was officially opened on 23 May 2016 by Nobel Laureate Professor

Eric Kandel Eric Richard Kandel (; born Erich Richard Kandel, November 7, 1929) is an Austrian-born American medical doctor who specialized in psychiatry, a neuroscientist and a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the College of Physicians and Surge ...

. SWC was established by inaugural Director and Nobel Laureate John O’Keefe with funding from the

and

. In October 2016, Professor Tom Mrsic-Flogel was appointed as the new Director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre.

Building design

The building was designed by Ian Ritchie of

Ian Ritchie Architects Ian Ritchie Architects Ltd is a British architectural and design practice, based in London led by its founder Ian Ritchie. The practice changed its name to 'Ritchie Studio' on 24 June 2021. Recently completed projects include the RIBA Aw ...

. The design of the labs and common areas was based on the feedback and observations from leading neuroscience research institutes around the world. The core of the building houses the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, a

computational neuroscience Computational neuroscience (also known as theoretical neuroscience or mathematical neuroscience) is a branch of neuroscience which employs mathematical models, computer simulations, theoretical analysis and abstractions of the brain to u ...

research unit that collaborates closely with SWC.

Research focus

Research at SWC is focused on

systems neuroscience Systems neuroscience is a subdiscipline of neuroscience and systems biology that studies the structure and function of neural circuits and systems. Systems neuroscience encompasses a number of areas of study concerned with how nerve cells behave ...

. SWC’s mission is to understand how neural circuits produce flexible, complex behaviours. The Centre comprises 13 research groups, made up of

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

s, PhD students,

research assistant A research assistant (RA) is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university, a research institute or a privately held organization, for the purpose of assisting in academic or private research. Research assistants are not in ...

s, and some Master’s students. They are led by the following experimental

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, Biological neural network, n ...

s: * Dr Athena Akrami * Professor Tiago Branco * Dr

Claudia Clopath Claudia Clopath is a Professor of Computational Neuroscience at Imperial College London and research leader at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour. She develops mathematical models to predict synaptic plasticity for bo ...

(part-time) * Dr Chunyu Ann Duan * Dr Jeffrey Erlich * Professor

Sonja Hofer Sonja Hofer is a German neuroscientist studying the neural basis of sensory perception and sensory-guided decision-making at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour. Her research focuses on how the brain processes visual in ...

* Dr Yoh Isogai * Professor Troy Margrie * Professor Tom Mrsic-Flogel * Dr Andy Murray * Professor John O’Keefe * Dr Andrew Saxe * Dr Marcus Stephenson-Jones Researchers work closely with the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit to bridge theoretical and experimental

Scientific accomplishments

In November 2017, a new device called

Neuropixels Neuropixels probes are electrodes developed in 2017 to record the activity of hundreds of neurons in the brain. The probes are based on CMOS technology and have 1,000 recording sites arranged in two rows on a thin, 1-cm long shank. The probes ar ...

was announced that records from hundreds of brain cells simultaneously. SWC was involved in a collaboration to develop the Neuropixels probes with scientists at

HHMI The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fil ...

Janelia Research Campus Janelia Research Campus is a scientific research campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute that opened in October 2006. The campus is located in Loudoun County, Virginia, near the town of Ashburn. It is known for its scientific research and m ...

, the

Allen Institute for Brain Science The Allen Institute for Brain Science is a division of the Allen Institute, based in Seattle, Washington, that focuses on bioscience research. Founded in 2003, it is dedicated to accelerating the understanding of how the human brain works. Wit ...

and UCL, and engineers at

imec Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC) is an international research & development organization, active in the fields of nanoelectronics and digital technologies, with headquarters in Belgium. Luc Van den hove has served as President and ...

. In September 2018, Professor John O’Keefe spoke at the Schrödinger at 75 conference about his lab’s work to develop simple tests of spatial awareness that could allow doctors to detect early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. In December 2020, SWC scientists developed a brain machine interface (BMI) that allowed mice to learn to guide a cursor using only their brain. This research could be applied to improve human BMIs in the future. In July 2021, SWC Group Leader Athena Akrami and the Patient Led Research Collaborative published the largest international study of

Long COVID Long COVID or long-haul COVID (also known as post-COVID-19 syndrome, post-COVID-19 condition, post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), or chronic COVID syndrome (CCS)) is a condition characterized by long-term health problems persisting or appe ...

to date which identified over 200 symptoms across 10 organ systems. The researchers called for a national screening programme for those with long Covid symptoms.

Education

The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre runs a four-year PhD programme taught by faculty at SWC, the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, and affiliated institutions including UCL.

Governing board

SWC Governing Board is chaired by Sir Malcolm Grant, other voting members are Professor Carol Barnes, Peter Hesketh, Professor Robert Kass, Professor Tony Movshon, Professor Geraint Rees, Dr Andrew Welchman.{{Cite web, title=Funders & Governance {{! Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, url=https://www.sainsburywellcome.org/web/content/funders-governance, access-date=2022-01-20, website=www.sainsburywellcome.org

References

External links

Official website

Ian Ritchie Studios: Sainsbury Wellcome Centre

British Neuroscience Association: Sainsbury Wellcome Centre

University College London: Sainsbury Wellcome Centre

Gatsby Charitable Foundation: Sainsbury Wellcome Centre

UCL Faculty of Life Sciences Academic Divisions
Neuroscience research centres in the United Kingdom University College London